Paula West: Feinstein’s at the Nikko

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Paula West

Feinstein’s at the Nikko, San Francisco, CA, February 13, 2015

Reviewed by Steve Murray for Cabaret Scenes

Paula-West-New-Cabaret-Scenes-Magazine_212Spring must be imminent because San Francisco’s crown jewel of the jazz scene has taken up her annual six-week residence at Feinstein’s at the Nikko. Always a treat to shake off the winter cobwebs, Paula West and her fierce musical collaborators always serve up something fresh and lively.
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Transitioning seamlessly between the old and contemporary is no problem for West, who opened with the Ethel Waters-recorded spicy “Do What You Did Last Night” and “I Won’t Dance” (Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II/Otto Harbach) before fast-forwarding decades ahead with Fred Neil’s Grammy Award-winning “Everybody’s Talkin’,” a huge hit for Harry Nilsson, featured in the movie Midnight Cowboy.

That’s the way West works—a solid base of beautiful classics like “Bill” (Show Boat) to Hank Williams’s humorous “Settin’ the Woods on Fire” to the Talking Heads’s new wave punk/funk “Life During Wartime.” Of course, each song gets a jazz interpretation with arrangements by pianist Adam Shulman that take the original melodic intent to a whole new level.
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An example is Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe,” where West carefully massages the lyric with her measured delivery that emphasizes the critical lines with both tempo and extended notes. But behind her, the band is cooking at a frenetic 12/8 time signature that drives the song like a well-tuned racecar.
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The glue that drives the great arrangements is percussionist Jerome Jennings, a master of the brushes and vibrantly fresh rhythms.

West was in great voice this night, allowing the music and lyrics to bring her selections of romance (both amorous and dysfunctional) to fruition.

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A real Valentine’s treat was her rendition of the gorgeous “I’m Glad There Is You” (“In This World of Ordinary People”). It’s so fine, that had it been her one and only selection, I would have been more than satisfied!

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Steve Murray

Always interested in the arts, Steve was encouraged to begin producing and, in 1998, staged four, one-man vehicles starring San Francisco's most gifted performers. In 1999, he began the Viva Variety series, a live stage show with a threefold mission to highlight, support, and encourage gay and gay-friendly art in all the performance forms, to entertain and document the shows, and to contribute to the community by donating proceeds to local non-profits. The shows utilized the old variety show style popularized by his childhood idol Ed Sullivan. He’s produced over 150 successful shows, including parodies of Bette Davis’s gothic melodramedy Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and Joan Crawford’s very awful Trog. He joined Cabaret Scenes 2007 and enjoys the writing and relationships he’s built with very talented performers.